Have goals — and make them SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.

I’m a gym rat. I love lifting weights, yoga, you name it. The days when I leave feeling less than exhausted, I realize it’s because I didn’t have a plan walking into the gym. So I always try to enter the gym with a specific goal — is it a cardio day or a weight day? What muscle groups am I going to work on? Am I going to use heavy weights with limited reps or just the opposite? With a plan in mind, I start seeing results after a few weeks. If I don’t, I know I need to change something.

The same idea holds true in business. For example, at AB&C, we just finished reworking our sales and marketing plan for 2014, and we learned a lot. First, we looked at this past year — what worked, what didn’t, what can we add to our marketing mix, how did our online data analytics look, etc. Then we gathered all our department heads together and had a brainstorming lunch to decide where we needed to head in 2014. As a result, we re-aimed our focus at a national and regional level, and plotted out the tactics to reach our goals.

Don’t have a marketing plan yet? Don’t fret — here is an easy way to get a plan together.Read full post...

The creative director of the future needs a different skill set — he or she will need to come out of the ranks of public relations, social media and interactive digital.

In 2009, there was a terrific documentary on advertising called Art & Copy. It’s an inspirational film that celebrates the most influential creative professionals of the past five decades. And there is something very telling in the title. Most of today’s creative directors rose out of the ranks of art director and copywriter — art and copy. In the era of print, TV and radio, this made perfect sense.

But if, like me, you are one of those creative directors, you may find recent trends to be frightening. Broadcast television ratings have been going down for decades. Newspapers and magazines are struggling to survive. Broadcast radio is competing with iPods and Internet radio. And now, here come the Millennials. This generation is larger than the boomer generation. The oldest of them are entering their 30s. In the next 10 years, they will start to dominate as consumers, employees and clients. Not only do they distrust paid mass media advertising, they’re finding it easier than ever to avoid it completely.Read full post...

I suggest that before taking that selfie, turn the camera around and look at what your audience is seeing.

POTUS, along with some other ruling “buddies,” decided to take a selfie at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service this week. Wow. This is one of the craziest displays of bad judgment of this news cycle — if not this year.

Or is it?

Statistics tell us that photos are the thing to share, so is it inappropriate to share a historic moment? Judging by the social media comments this photo generated, there are plenty of people on both sides of the fence. By the time we make up our minds, another display of public misjudgment will have no doubt come along and distracted us.Read full post...

Nurture your PR campaigns and plans through to the end … even if that means risking frostbite.

Long before LeSean McCoy rushed into the record books in Sunday’s Eagles-Lions game in Philadelphia, the game itself was already a legend in the making. A surprise snowstorm and a second-half comeback by the home team made a captivating story for sports fans across the country.

Now that I have thawed out from hours spent in the icy stands of Lincoln Financial Field, I realized that Snow Bowl can offer some valuable public relations lessons. Think hypothermia has made me delirious? Consider:

1. Be prepared for anything. Even the most carefully crafted plans could change. This is true whether you’re planning to launch an ambitious PR campaign for a product that suddenly isn’t ready for market, or if you game-planned for a few snowflakes and not a swirling snowstorm.Read full post...

No one can say whether it will be able to monetize its social media platform, but the data suggests that TV broadcasters and cable networks have good reason to use Twitter.

It’s no wonder that broadcasters and some advertisers see Twitter as the ideal promotional partner. The Media Audit reports that nearly 15% of consumers who watch TV during prime time on a typical day have also used Twitter in the past 30 days. That’s an increase of more than 60% compared to 9.2% just two years ago. The latest figure represents more than 13.1 million consumers across The Media Audit’s 80 measured markets.

The way people watch TV is changing. More people are streaming video content and TV shows on mobile devices. Nielsen just announced that they’d be measuring phone and tablet TV viewing by mid-November. And there is a growing number of consumers who post and read tweets about popular TV shows and sporting events in real time, many of whom belong to the much-desired younger demographic. That helps to explain why advertisers and media are interested in Twitter. It lends itself to helping brands or media extend their reach to a desirable younger audience.Read full post...

Michael English, Senior Interactive Art Director

WILMINGTON, DE — Aloysius Butler & Clark has hired Michael English as its Senior Interactive Art Director. He will concentrate primarily on online animation and website design. English will work out of the agency’s Wilmington office.Read full post...

Popular? Maybe. Appalling? Absolutely!

Lack of diversity affects our lives personally and professionally. In this country, equality for everyone — minority, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender — seems like a simple concept. Sadly, I struggle every day to understand why it is not.

Challenges such as marriage equality and feeling safe in the workplace (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) are joined by a multitude of other forms of inequality, such as sexism, racial profiling and gender bias. These issues appear in abundance on the Internet and social media, and on sites you might not expect.

Recently Adweek published an article entitled “Powerful Ads Use Real Google Searches to Show the Scope of Sexism Worldwide.” The campaign, created by UN Women, uses Google’s autocomplete search feature to show how gender inequality is a worldwide epidemic. The study used search qualifiers like “women shouldn’t,” “women need to,” and “women cannot.” Read full post...

Have a clear plan in place for the changes your staff will go through over the next few years.

Welcome to the wildest of times in the history of American healthcare. Consumers, physicians and advanced practitioners, administrators, insurers, and government bureaucrats are caught up in a systematic change that’s as manageable as a tornado in a mailbox. Since 2010, we’ve all been loosely aware of the guidelines of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare,” if you prefer). But today — only a couple months from full adoption — uncertainty and fear loom large. All parties are scrambling to make sense of this monumental change, let alone predict how it will affect their daily operations.

Here’s a clue: Unprepared health systems and hospitals throughout the country are facing mass layoffs or, worse, closing. Some even project that one-third of hospitals in America will close or completely reorganize by 2020. Healthcare is rapidly becoming the newest commodity in an open competitive market, and healthcare employers with brand names will prevail.Read full post...

ANCHORAGE, AK — Aloysius Butler & Clark has reached the final American frontier. The agency’s physician recruitment team will conduct an employment discovery program and develop brand creative for Southcentral Foundation (SCF), an Alaskan health system servicing 60,000 Alaska Native and American Indians. Through unique branding categories, AB&C not only reduces time-to-fill for hospitals’ physician vacancies, but also ensures candidates fit the organizations.

“SCF expands the reach of Aloysius Butler & Clark beyond ‘the lower 48,’” says John Hawkins, president and CEO. “The location presents both limitations and intrigue. More so than any client that we represent, SCF demands that we focus on understanding a native culture.”Read full post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbygSoZkDtk&feature=youtu.be

Put on those sneakers and stretch those calves — Team AB&C is gearing up for the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 9. The venue is 1201 North Market Street — at 331 feet, the state’s tallest building. Runners will start their 21-floor ascent at 8:30 a.m. And, if one time just isn’t enough, the boldest climbers have the option of running a second leg. Luckily, a nice elevator ride awaits them on the way down.

Each AB&C’er hopes to raise $100. Additionally, the AB&C team is aiming high with a $1,000 goal in the team category. Donations will support lung disease education, research and advocacy. Lung diseases include lung cancer, COPD, asthma and emphysema — diseases to which AB&C team members have very personal connections.Read full post...

If a potential customer reads a negative review, they’re more forgiving if you’re a part of the conversation.

Your online presence is bigger than you think. It’s certainly bigger than your website. People are talking about your business all over the Internet — whether you like it or not.

Maybe you’ve never visited a review or social media site, but guess what? They’ve probably visited you. Someone stopped in for a bite, bought a new car or was simply in the neighborhood and voila! Your online listing was born. And yes, it can happen without your blessing.

We’re not talking about angry customers who had a bad experience and spend their time venting in a blog post that six people will read. We’re talking about reputable, heavily trafficked sites where people go to check in, read reviews and sometimes offer up a piece of their own mind.

So what, you ask? Well, you may be losing clients and sales without even knowing it. It’s pretty simple: Online reviews pack a punch. According to Inc.com, 89 percent of consumers trust online product and service reviews. Whether it’s spot-on or wildly out of whack, your online reputation may be a customer’s first touchpoint with your business.Read full post...

WILMINGTON, DE — Aloysius Butler & Clark, a full-service marketing communications agency, received high praise from Ad Week, the leading industry publication for marketing, media and advertising professionals. In a recent article titled The United States of Advertising Agencies, AB&C was named Delaware’s “Top Shop.”

“Our selection speaks to the strong partnerships we’ve forged with clients from Delaware to Alaska,” says John Hawkins, president and CEO. “We’ve invested in the entire process — research and strategy all the way through execution and measurement. It makes our creative stronger and our clients more successful.”

Read full post...

Spending time with family and friends is the greatest perk of all.

Not so long ago, a company would lure a potential employee with a competitive salary and medical benefits. These days, companies have new ammunition — perks. Perks represent the “value” employers put on their employees. But they also have a potentially darker side.

Salary.com recently posted an article about 14 companies that offer incredible employee perks. At first blush, they all sounded amazing and of course my employer should adopt all of them immediately. But it became clear that these perks were about keeping the employee onsite. Free lunches and dinners, yoga, a playroom, childcare, on-site gyms, on-site concierges to handle life’s chores — everything a working stiff might need to get through the day, right outside his or her office door.Read full post...

Don’t be known for having a short temper and being unprofessional.

The Internet has made it easy to complain about anything at the drop of a hat. Whether or not the complaints are justified, it’s important to know how to handle them without offending the complainer or the rest of your customer base. So here’s what not to do:

1. Make the person feel like an idiot.

I recently participated in a company’s event that was very poorly run. After hearing several complaints, a friend of mine sent the organizer an email relaying the group’s frustration. The organizer responded by posting the message on the company’s Facebook page and picking it apart line by line. He essentially tore my friend a new one. What a great way to alienate a paying customer and anyone with similar opinions.Read full post...

If you missed Part I, get caught up before you read any further. 

Dawn guessed that whoever was haunting the first floor might have been alive during the 1930s. She began to play a ’30s hymn on the piano in an attempt to rile up the spirit. No response. Perhaps the ghost was more of a Belieber.

Downingtown Area Paranormal Investigators examine Craig Brown’s office.

The team then moved into the office of a former employee who had brought in an Episcopalian priest to bless the building because of its history. Dawn dangled a necklace between her fingers and encouraged one of the spirits to move it. To everyone’s surprise, the necklace began to swing in circles but stopped after only a few minutes.

We ascended to the second floor where Courtney Rossi, our Human Resources and Traffic Manager, had an eerie encounter one morning two and a half years ago. Courtney was the first one in to work. She headed to her office, and spotted a very tall man standing in a doorway about 20 feet down the hall. Well over six feet tall, the man stood with his head down, wearing a wide-brimmed hat that covered most of his face. He was also wearing a dark, horse-riding cloak and large, filthy boots. Courtney couldn’t make out any facial features. When she took a step forward to get a better look, the phantom backed into the office and disappeared.Read full post...